The Ramsey hairpin section is a standard mountain road stage.
At this moment, Lin Yan has entered the uphill section, with the dazzling sun directly overhead.
He felt that he could faintly see the figures of the riders ahead.
Compared to the previous stages, the Ramsey hairpin turns are more dangerous, with cliffs on all sides, and the risk of falling off the cliff with the slightest carelessness.
Therefore, Lin Yan is particularly careful here, and before entering each turn, he tries to minimize the shaking of the vehicle body as much as possible.
This allows for a smoother entry into the turn.
"Now we can see that on this Ramsey hairpin stage, our rider number 27 seems to have changed his original riding style."
Hao Dong also noticed this at this moment.
"Before each corner, he seems to brake a little earlier than before. His riding style now is more conservative compared to just now, perhaps because of this track!"
Hao Dong commented enthusiastically in the live broadcast. In his opinion, with the strength Lin Yan has shown, as long as he performs steadily in the next two stages, he is very likely to advance to the main race.
And once he advances to the main race, China will also have a TT rider.
This achievement alone, being the first Chinese TT rider, would allow him to go down in history.
In just one minute and thirty-seven seconds, Lin Yan rode his Ducati V4 to the top of the mountain. This result is already very good for a qualifying race.
Of course, because Lin Yan was saving his strength, his performance in this section was not particularly outstanding. It is kanδん.
Compared to going uphill, the downhill section is more dangerous.
Due to the undulations, the front suspension of the Ducati V4 compressed and extended.
A bump sent the bike more than a meter into the air, landing heavily on the ground.
This made the audience in the live broadcast and in front of the television screens tremble with fear.
This is due to the good quality of the bike. If it were some other brand, this impact alone could directly bend the suspension.
At such high speeds, Lin Yan must control his braking well, otherwise, with the slightest carelessness, inertia would cause him to fly off the track.
At this moment, the live broadcast clearly focused on Lin Yan. The reason was simple: in this test race, only this Chinese rider performed the most brilliantly.
Through the helicopter footage, the riders ahead could be seen.
The two bikes were only about twenty seconds apart in their start times. Although it was only a short twenty seconds, for a rider, even a one-second difference is huge, but now Lin Yan was almost catching up to the rider in front.
"The rider in front is too slow."
"Yeah, I feel like he's about to be caught up."
"It's not that he's too slow, it's that our Chinese rider is too fast!"
"I feel like that's true..."
"Damn, I'm so excited I can't speak, I can only say awesome!"
"27, charge for me!!!"
With a piercing screech of brakes, Lin Yan passed the last corner of the Ramsey hairpin section.
The powerful acceleration of the Ducati out of the corner caused the front wheel of the bike to lift.
The long straight is always the advantage of the Ducati. With its powerful exit speed, Lin Yan further closed the gap between himself and the bike in front.
At this moment, sweat had already seeped under Lin Yan's helmet, flowing into his leather suit along his collar.
Even though he was conserving his energy as much as possible, it was still not enough. The qualifying race was only one lap, and only about ten minutes had passed.
Other riders didn't feel much, but Lin Yan was already starting to sweat and dehydrate.
Now Lin Yan's body didn't seem like that of a twenty-year-old, but rather like that of a thirty-year-old rider.
His stamina was starting to lag behind his skills.
"Successfully exiting the corner, our rider number twenty-seven will now face the 'Furnace' stage."
In front of Lin Yan is a plain. Apart from the final finish line, this is the fifth stage of the Isle of Man, the 'Furnace'.
Near the finish line, there is a crematorium. On the red brick exterior walls are rows of red wooden nameplates, engraved with the names of those who died on the track and were cremated here, along with the locations of their accidents.
To commemorate them, this section is also called the 'Furnace' stage.
Upon hearing Hao Dong's words, the bullet comments became active.
"What is the 'Furnace' stage? The name is so unique."
"Indeed, is there a furnace in front?"
"This name sounds a bit spooky..."
"Damn, I'm walking home alone right now, watching the live broadcast as I walk. Is it that scary?"
Because the time in the Isle of Man is seven hours ahead of China, it was already past seven o'clock in China, and it was already dark.
...
There are indeed many knowledgeable people in the bullet comments, but there are also many novices. It wasn't until Hao Dong explained it that these people understood the meaning of the 'Furnace' stage.
"I didn't expect it to be like this..."
"Salute..."
"I didn't expect it to have this meaning, it's so touching..."
...
Then the bullet comments flooded in again.
Compared to the ups and downs of the previous Ramsey hairpin section, this area is a plain.
However, spectators lined both sides of the road. Although there were guardrails, they still significantly obstructed the riders' vision.
But there was no other way, because the Isle of Man races are long and mostly mountainous, making it impossible to set up spectator stands.
Only in the areas near the start and the plain of the 'Furnace' stage could spectator stands be set up.
This is also the only source of economic income for the Isle of Man race organizers.
Among the spectators on the field were some Chinese fans. Seeing Lin Yan's figure and the red flag on his bike, they cheered enthusiastically.
Although they knew that he might not advance to the main race, they believed that any Chinese rider who could stand on this stage was worthy of their respect.
At this moment, Lin Yan was closely tailing the rider in front.
But he did not choose to overtake, but rather stuck closely to the slipstream of the bike in front.
The two bikes had now reached the series of corners after the long straight, which is also the best section for overtaking.
Because there were too many spectators around, even though there were guardrails, he still chose to wait until after these consecutive corners to overtake.
It wasn't a lack of confidence in himself, but a lack of confidence in the other rider.
The threshold for the Isle of Man main race is very high, but the threshold for the qualifying race is relatively lower. Otherwise, Lin Yan wouldn't have casually bought a spot to participate.
Moreover, most TT riders focus on time trials, and they lack experience in close-quarters racing and overtaking.
If he were to force an overtake without understanding the other rider's line, and the other rider couldn't react, it could lead to a collision and a crash.
However, at this moment, Hao Dong in the live broadcast did not understand Lin Yan's intentions.
He was still struggling to commentate.
"At this moment, our rider number twenty-seven is closely tailing the rider in front, seemingly looking for an opportunity to overtake. He has been hesitating, and it seems he doesn't have much confidence..."
The rider in front had already realized that Lin Yan was behind him, but his defensive line at this moment was full of flaws.
If it were a formal TT rider, they would never make such a low-level mistake.